[LEAPSECS] Coming of age in the solar system

[Daniel R. Tobias]

On 4 Sep 2010 at 6:22, M. Warner Losh wrote:


> That would be an argument against leap seconds too.  When they

> were introduced, they obsoleted all mechanical clocks because none

> of them can handle leap seconds.  Even today, the number of clocks

> that can handle them is vanishingly small. 


Not really an issue, since the number of clocks that can keep time 
with atomic precision is also vanishingly small.  Clocks in actual 
use outside specialized laboratories typically gain or lose entire 
seconds (maybe even minutes) over the course of the days, weeks, 
months, and years they are in operation.  Even clocks in server-grade 
computers are inaccurate in this way.  Hence, if keeping correct time 
is a goal, one must periodically set the clocks (manually or 
automatically) to an external standard, which results either in the 
time jumping a few seconds (or minutes if you've waited too long to 
reset it) one way or the other, or else the seconds getting 
"rubberized" if you smooth the change.  Thus, there end up being 
discontinuities or irregularities in your timekeeping, even without a 
single leap second.  Leap seconds just add an occasional addition to 
this irregularity.  People live with it.


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